So you can once again, with the
help of God, I'd like us to turn to the chapter that we read together,
the Gospel according to John, chapter 3, and the text you'll
find in verse 8. The wind bloweth where it listeth,
and thou hearest the sound thereof, but thy counts not tell whether
it cometh or whether it goeth. So is every one that is born
of the Spirit. It's probably one of the most
well-known chapters in scripture having John 3.16 in it, for God
so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever
believeth in him could not perish but have everlasting life. And that gives us there the statement,
the gospel statement which Christ came into this world to, was
given to this world as a substitute for sin, that whosoever believes
in him will not perish, will not perish in their sins, will
be saved from hell, will be saved from the wrath of God. But as
the Lord Jesus Christ is speaking to Nicodemus, he tells him how
that will work in the life of a person. As a statement, it's
quite simple. Whosoever believes on the Lord
Jesus Christ shall be saved. Yet the workings of that in a
person's life is a great transformation, a transforming work of God in
the heart of a person. We know that nobody can come
to Christ except they be drawn to Christ. No one can see any
beauty in Christ except their eyes be opened. No one can have
any true feelings to the Lord Jesus Christ except their heart
be changed from a heart of stone and they be given a heart of
flesh. No one can hear what the Spirit
says to the churches except the Holy Spirit opens up their ears
that they may hear the truth of the word. And so there is
an operation which goes on, the operation of the Holy Spirit,
the moving of the Holy Spirit. And as Jesus says, the moving
of the Holy Spirit is just like the wind. It is an operation
that cannot be seen as such but the effects of him moving can
be seen. As we witness the wind at the
moment we cannot see the wind itself. We know that it's there
because we see the effects of it moving in the trees and in
the leaves And as we see the wind, as we see the trees blowing
this way and that way, and as we feel the wind blowing on our
bodies, and some of you who are worried about the wind blowing
you over, we know that the wind is there because we feel its
effect, we feel its power, its force. And so we know that the
Holy Spirit of God is there. Not only that it's written in
the Word of God and we believe it as Christ said that he would
give him to the world, yet we see the effect of the Holy Spirit
in the lives of believers and in the lives of those who come
from the darkness to the light, who are unable to see their need
of Christ, who have a new heart given to them. We see the operation
of the Spirit of God working as the wind. And so Jesus is
seeking to explain to this Nicodemus the work of God in the heart. And Nicodemus is confused. A
man who studies the law, been seeking to strive for perfection,
been seeking to teach others, that he comes to something that
he can't grasp, something heavenly which he can't understand. And
Jesus tells him, except a man be born again, he cannot see
the kingdom of God. And so there is a work that has
to take place which is something that a person naturally cannot
do of themselves. It is a transforming work of
God himself in the life of an individual just like being born. None of us had any say as to
when we were born into this world. We were born, we came into being,
we were pushed into this world and Jesus says it is the same
way in which someone comes into the kingdom of God. It is being
born again born of the spirit. Jesus says, Verily, verily, or
truly, truly, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water
and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born
of spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I say unto thee,
ye must be born again. And so there is one thing that
is needful As Jesus says to Mary and Martha, there is one thing
that is needful, that is to sit at the feet of the Lord Jesus
Christ. But there is another thing that is essential, that
you must be born again to enter into the kingdom of God. this work of being born again
is the work of God. The work of God working in the
heart by the power of his Holy Spirit who is invisible yet his
influence is seen as we witness the moving of the trees, as we
witness the moving of the leaves. So we witness the moving of the
Holy Spirit in the lives of the people of God and bringing others
into the light of the gospel. As we think about the wind it
is quite difficult really to explain what it is because you
cannot see it. We know what it is. It is the
moving of air. reading a bit about it. As the
sun warms up certain parts of the earth, different temperatures
cause the air to move in different ways and that produces the wind. Even the spinning of the earth
causes a wind. And so we can't see the wind
itself, but we see the evidences of it, the effects of it. There
are different names that we give. Today, there is the storm that
has taken place. I've forgotten its name, but
we say that it's a strong wind or gale force winds. There are times when it's just
a breeze or times when there are no wind at all. Times when
we see the wind turbines in Polgate, they're at a standstill. There's
no wind. There's no power being generated
because there's no wind passing through those blades but other
times they are spinning freely and generating power because
the wind is blowing. And the wind as we look at it
is seemingly out of control gusting this way and that way and it
seems like nobody is in control of it whatsoever. It's a force
that cannot be stopped, cannot be hindered, cannot be channeled. That God himself is in complete
control of the wind. Today as we see the storm taking
place, and yesterday we see the effects of it on the sea. And
some are very fearful, aren't they, of being blown over We
see the trees bending and bowing under the effects of that great
storm. The scripture tells us that God
is in control. God has his way in the whirlwind. We've seen on the news those
whirlwinds that take place, even the one recently in Spain when
there was the floods. And as that tornado passed through
the valley and you see it picking up everything in its path, roof
tiles and everything gets sucked up. Nothing can stand in its
way. It is powerful. No one can stop
it. No one can alter its course except
for God. The scripture tells us doesn't
it in Daniel about God. No man can stay his hand or say
unto him what doest thou. And we can say the same as the
wind. No one can stay his hand or say unto him what doest thou. It is an unapproachable or uncontrollable
force. That God is in control of it.
In Nahum chapter one. It says, The Burden of Nineveh,
the Book of the Vision of Nahum, the El Koshite. God is jealous
and the Lord revenges. The Lord revenges and is furious. The Lord will take vengeance
on his adversaries and he reserveth wrath for his enemies. The Lord
is slow to anger and great in power. and will not always acquit
the wicked. The Lord has his way in the whirlwind
and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his freight.
He rebuketh the sea, he maketh it dry, he dryeth up all the
rivers, the basin languisheth, Carmel and the flower of Laban. The mountains quake at him and
the hills melt. The earth is burned at his presence.
Yet the world, yea the world and all that dwelleth therein,
who can stand before his indignation? And who can abide the fierceness
of his anger? His fury is poured out like fire
and the rocks are thrown down by him. The Lord is good. a stronghold
in the day of trouble, and he knoweth them that trust in him.
And so it says there that who can stand in the way of God,
he has his way in the whirlwind, he has his way in the storm.
There are events that take place in this world of ours that nobody,
no human being can stand in their way. You just have to allow them
to pass over and the wind is one of them. that God is in complete
control. Remember when the children of
Israel came out of Egypt and as I said to you this morning
there was the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire
by night and as they stood there by the Red Sea the Lord had led
them to that point and there was the Red Sea before them and
the scripture says that the Lord caused a strong east wind to
blow and the water was divided. The wind was being controlled
by the Lord. When Noah was waiting for the
water to abate, the wind blew upon the face of the ocean. And the apostle Paul in the book
of Acts was going to Rome. the Lord had
brought a storm there. He must be cast upon a certain
island and the Lord was in control of it. And as we look round about
us at this storm that is seemingly what they call a freak of nature
yet we see that God is in complete control. He knows where every
leaf will blow. He knows where every gust will
blow, where every tile will fall off any roof. The Lord is in
complete control of all of these things. He is the sovereign Lord,
the sovereign ruler of the skies and he has his way in the whirlwind
and in the storm. He causes it to blow. It is not out of control. In Acts 27, when the apostle
there is on the boat, in verse 40, it says, And when they had
taken up the anchors, they committed themselves unto the sea, and
loosed the rubber bands, the rudder bands, and hoisted up
the mainsail to the wind, and made towards the shore. They committed themselves to
the wind. God was in control of the wind. God drove them into that place
where two seas met. God caused them to be cast upon
a certain island so that the preaching of the gospel could
be proclaimed to those heathen that are on that island. God
was in complete control of all of those events that were taking
place. just as he is in control of the
wind. His Holy Spirit was guiding the
Apostle Paul. God was guiding the wind, God
was guiding Paul to the island, God was with the apostle as he
ministered the word of God to those people to bring about their
salvation and as Paul preached the gospel to the heathen so
the Holy Spirit, the sovereign spirit of God, the spirit of
truth, the comforter, enlightened the minds of those people that
were there and they were born again was no out-of-control event. It was orchestrated by the Father
who is in heaven and by the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Holy
Spirit of God. He blows where He, the wind blows
where it listeth, where it wants. It is free. We hear the sound of it. we can't
tell where it's going or where it's from. If you remember this morning when we spoke about
creation and God divided the light from the darkness we read
there about the spirit of God the spirit of God moved upon
the face of the waters. Another word for the spirit or
spirit in the scripture is the wind. A spirit we know has no
bounds, no limitations like you and me. We know that God is a
spirit and they that worship him worship in spirit and in
truth. That means that he's not constrained to any particular
area that he can be in the holy of holies yet he can still be
in the uttermost parts of the earth as the spirit is not bound
by the limitations of a body. And so the spirit of God moved
upon the face of the waters or the wind of God moved upon the
face of the waters and God said let there be light. And as we
read in John this morning about the Lord Jesus Christ he was
there at the beginning. who was there, all things were
made by him and without him was not anything made. In him was
life and the life was the light of men and the light shined into
the darkness and the darkness comprehended it not. And so Father,
Son, Holy Spirit, all there at the foundation of this world,
all there to bring about a creation itself, to bring about the and here in the New Testament
to bring about salvation, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And so the wind is likened to
the Holy Spirit of God. And we can see why the Lord Jesus
Christ likens him to the Spirit. He is invisible. He is invisible. He's without limitation. He is almighty, all-powerful,
unhindered. He is sovereign. He works freely. He's not under
the control of men. There are some people that we
met in Kenya and even in our own land who believe that the
Holy Spirit is under their control. that they can speak to him and
command him to do things at their beckoning. The scripture tells
us that the Holy Spirit is God. Christ says that he is going
to go to the Father and send the Spirit. We know that the
Spirit of God continued on the work of the Lord Jesus Christ,
convicting of sin. And so the wind blows where it
likes. We hear the sound of it. We cannot
tell where it comes or where it is going. And so the wind
itself is seemingly sovereign, yet the physical wind we know
is under the control of Almighty God, yet the spiritual wind,
the wind of the Holy Spirit is the sovereign God. No one can
tell him Where is he going? What is he
doing? No one can command him to do as they desire him to do for
he is God, the third person of the Trinity. In John chapter
15 we read of the Lord Jesus Christ revealing to his disciples
of this coming spirit The Spirit of God, as we have seen, has
always been active through the Old Testament. Yet he was going
to come in a greater measure. He was going to infill all believers. He was going to dwell in them. Jesus says, John chapter 15, verse 26, But when the Comforter
is come, I will send unto you from the Father even the Spirit
of truth which proceedeth from the Father he shall testify of
me and ye also shall bear witness because ye have been with me
from the beginning. In chapter 14 and verse 16 it
says I will pray the Father and he will give you another comforter
that he may abide with you forever. even the spirit of truth, whom
the world cannot receive because it seeth him not, neither knoweth
him, but ye know him, for he dwelleth with you and shall be
in you. I will not leave you comfortless,
I will come to you. And here we see that the unity
of the spirit, you remember that the Lord Jesus Christ said to
Philip, if you have seen me, you have seen the Father. And
here Jesus says I'm going to pray to the Father that he's
going to give you another comforter and when he has come I will not
leave you comfortless. I will come to you. And so if
we have the Holy Spirit in us, we have Christ in us, we have
God the Father in us, we are part of that we've been brought into
that church, that relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. He
says, I will, I will come to you. Chapter 16, it says, Howbeit
when he, the spirit of truth is come, he will guide you in
all truth. shall not speak of himself but
whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak he will show you
things to come he shall glorify me for he shall receive of mine
and shall show it unto you all things that the father hath are
mine therefore said i that he shall take of mine and show it
unto you And so the Spirit of God was going to come and going
to descend upon the disciples and he was going to reveal to
them, open up their understanding to the scriptures and so he does
even today with the people of God. He takes the things of Christ
and he shines, as it were, a light into their hearts. He shows them
their sin. He shows them their need of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He takes the things of Christ
and he reveals them unto the people of God. We know that on
the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came in his fullness,
the scripture says there was that sound of a mighty wind. in the book of Acts chapter 2,
1 to 4, when the day of Pentecost was fully come. They were all
in one accord and in one place. And suddenly there came a sound
from heaven as of a mighty wind and it filled the house where
they were sitting and there appeared unto them cloven tongues like
as of fire as it sat on each of them and they were filled
with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as
the Spirit gave them utterance. And so as the Holy Spirit came
upon that day of Pentecost the sound of a mighty wind The Spirit
of God is sovereign. like the wind. He descended upon
the early church. He gave them gifts and abilities
for the advancement of the gospel, the ability to speak in other
languages, languages that they had not heard. He gave them the
ability to translate other languages. He gave the people the ability
to receive the word of God as truth and to turn from their
sin and to believe upon it. He empowered the church those
weak men became mighty men of God under the influence of the
Spirit, able to face opportunity, able to face persecution and
difficulty and hardship and even today the Holy Spirit of God
equips the church for their continued advancement of the gospel. He
equips each saint to work in the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. He gives gifts and abilities
for the body of Christ. No Christian is the same. We
all have different abilities, different skills that have been
given to us that we may be made useful for the good of the church. And those gifts have been given
to us by Christ's ascension and by the giving of the Holy Ghost
as he gifted the early church. So he gifts the people of God
today. But there is no wind. In those
turbines, there's no power. Jesus says, if you don't have
the Spirit of God, don't belong to me. If we don't have the Spirit
of God we can never believe and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is the one that gives that power, that ability to lay hold
of the truths of the scripture and to see our need of the Lord
Jesus and his effect is seen. His effect is seen. The wind
blows where it likes and we hear the sound of it but we can't
tell where it's going or where it's from. We lay in bed, we
hear the wind howling round our houses. We hear it. We look out the window and we
see its effect. Leaves everywhere, trees blowing
this way and that way. And so it is with the Holy Spirit
of God. We see the effect. Jesus says in the chapter that
we read in 16, there were certain evidences of the work of this
Holy Spirit that were going to be seen in the lives of people. The Holy Spirit, the comforter,
when he entered into a person there was going to be a transformation.
Things were going to alter in their life. If you remember the
Lord Jesus Christ this morning he is the light of the world
and when that light is shined into the heart there are things
that are seen. So I've said to you before in
the darkness enter into a room you cannot see what the wallpaper
is, you cannot see the color of the carpet, you can't see
the cracks that are there. But when you put the light on
you're able to see things are made clear, you can see the cracks
that need to be repaired. And so when the Spirit of God
enters into a person He shines a light, he illuminates their
mind and they're able to see the cracks. The cracks in their
own righteousness. They once thought that they were
good enough but when he shines he reveals to them that you're
not good enough. There are cracks here, there
are cracks there. He shows them the sin that we
have committed. External sins. those things that we have done
in the secret. He shows us internal sin. And
he goes into, as it were, the inner recesses of our heart with
a torch and exposes things that we have long forgotten about. Because he is convicting of sin. That is his first work. you get a mortgage on a house
a surveyor must go first to inspect the house and he's looking for
signs of subsidence and movement for leaks and damage to the roofs
and different things like that that will make that will make
the house lose its value or later on there'll be greater problems
and so he has to expose problems, he has to find faults with the
house and when the Holy Spirit enters into a person he shines
and he reveals our corrupt nature and our sin, he finds fault He
is holy remember the Holy Spirit of God entering into a sinful
person and he reveals to them their sin. He comes to reprove the world
of sin and of righteousness of judgment of sin because they
do not believe on me of righteousness because I go to the Father and
of judgment because the prince of this world is judged. And
so he comes and he reveals to people, their inner nature. And
then he points them to the true light of the Lord Jesus Christ,
their only hope. It reveals to them the coming
judgment and that their only hope for safety is to be found
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And there he stays. After he
has, as it were, cast out the buyers and the sellers, he now
indwells within that body, that spirit, that person, Do you not know that your body
is a temple of the Holy Spirit that is in you? And so the Spirit
of God comes to dwell with his people. When the Spirit of God
comes to dwell with his people there is an effect. Although
we cannot see him as people saw the Lord Jesus Christ. They cannot
see the Spirit of God as we cannot see the wind. Yet we can see
the effect of the wind and we can see the effect of the Spirit
of God in the lives of different ones. Jesus says, so is everyone
that is born of the Spirit. It's a sovereign work of God
in the life of a believer. And we see as we drive around
at this moment we see great trees bending under
the influence of the wind. And we see some trees even falling
over. You think of the Apostle Paul
persecuting the church we see him under the influence of the
spirit of God bending, buckling and breaking as God works in
him. As we walk around we hear those
as the wind howls through the trees sometimes in the woods
you can hear those creaks and those cracks as the wind blows
through the woods there's an effect And as the Spirit of God
moves there are effects. Great men succumb to the power
of the Spirit and are changed. Hardened sinful women are broken
and brought to the Lord Jesus Christ as we see in the scripture. The Spirit of God moves on them
and they are broken. Oh that we might see it. if you've ever read of the revival
on the Isle of Lewis. At the beginning of that revival
there was no preaching. There was prayer meetings for
a long time and then one night God moved
and he moved by his spirit. And there were a group of young
people who were in a dance, a village hall that had been hired and
there was like a disco there. And they were dancing away, enjoying
themselves while the church was praying. And the Holy Spirit entered into
that room where those young people were. No preaching. Just the presence of a holy God
emptied that room. The music stopped. All of the
youths ran out and they ran to the church. They were convicted
of their sin. They knew nothing of Christ.
What they knew was fear. The Spirit of God had moved on
them. They had cracked. They had broken and they ran
crying to the church. The preacher was called and as
he went up into his pulpit there was a girl there lying on the
pulpit. She was a teacher and she was
just saying this, is there mercy for me? Is there mercy for me? What had happened? The Spirit of God had moved on
that congregation. The Spirit of God had blown into
the life of that young lady and convicted her of her sin. She
had been regenerated and when now she had been regenerated
what could happen to her? She had been convicted of her
sin, the Holy Spirit had shone a light in her life and she knew
that I am a sinner and I need mercy. Did the preacher leave her? Is there mercy for me? Well, there is mercy for those
who need mercy. Those who cry out like the tax
collector, God be merciful to me a sinner. There is hope, Jesus
says, that this man went to his house justified and the young
lady could be pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ. There is mercy
for such as you. Those who feel their need of
Christ, Christ is there. They can be pointed to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ
and you shall be saved. She needed the Lord Jesus. Has
the wind of the Spirit of God blown in my life? Has it blown
in your life? Have you seen your need of the
Lord Jesus? Has the Spirit of God shone his
light in your heart and shown you your sin? You may be able to say that you're
a sinner but have you seen that you're
a sinner? There's the hymn that says To see sin hurts but slightly
own with lit confession is easier still but oh to feel it cuts
deep beyond all measure. True guilt for what you have
done, true guilt that you have stepped over the line that God
has said, true guilt that you have broken God's holy law, Like
David said, against thee and thee only have I sinned and done
this evil in thy sight. It was the Spirit of God that
had revealed that to him otherwise he wouldn't care. Against God
it is who we have sinned and it's the Spirit of God who illuminates
our mind to show us that we have sinned against God and he blows
where he likes. We can't see him. Yet we can
see the effects of his work and we desire that he works more
and more in the lives of unbelievers bringing them to Christ and even
in the lives of believers to make them more conformed to the
image of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so is everyone that is born
of the Spirit. It is God's sovereign work. that
brings people to Christ and those who have received Christ have
done so because God has shown them their need of Christ and
what a great blessing that is. To live a life with the knowledge
that God chose you before the foundation of the world. To live
a life with the knowledge that you are loved with an everlasting
love. To live a life with the knowledge
that Christ came into this dark world so that you may be given
eternal life. Marvel not that I say unto you,
you must be born again. There is that must. If you are
not born again, you will never ever see the kingdom of God,
the scripture tells us. There is one thing in life that
is needful. The world presses us. You need
this, you need that, you need to go here, you need to do that.
Experience life. Enjoy yourself. Choose God later
on. But the scripture says today.
you hear his voice harden not your heart you must be born again. May the Spirit of God take these
words and drive them straight into our hearts, that it may
be like as we step out of this building, we feel the wind blowing
on us. May it be that he blows upon
our lives and upon us, that we might be found amongst those
that are born again. For Jesus says, For God so loved
the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth
on him should not perish but have everlasting life. You must
be born again to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. When you believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ you will be saved. saved for all
eternity, saved to be with Christ, which is far, far better. May the Lord add his blessing.
Amen. Our final hymn this evening is
1053 to the tune 894. 1053. Love divine or love excelling,
joy of heaven to earth come down. Fix in us thy humble dwelling,
all thy faithful mercies crown. Jesus thou art all compassion,
pure unbounded love thou art. Visit us with I Salvation Comfort
Every Sinking Heart 1053 Yeah. Let us find thy promised land. Saves our hearts and liberties. Carry on, my new creation, pure
and learning, ? Change from me to you ? Loving Heavenly Father, we thank
Thee for the gift of Thy Holy Spirit and we pray that He may
take the things of the Lord Jesus Christ and reveal them to each
of us this night. We ask that we may go home with
Thy Holy Spirit within our hearts, that we may go on our way rejoicing
in what Thou hast done. Do save us, Lord, from ourselves. Do save us from our sins and
do turn our faces to the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray, Lord,
that Thou would dismiss us with Thy blessing. Do be with us in
a few days and then bring us here on Wednesday as we look
into that work which has begun in Kenya. We thank Thee, Lord,
for all that Thou art doing there. We pray, Lord, for rain to be
given to them. Do fill the water tanks, we pray.
And now may we be dismissed with thy blessing. Now may the grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father, with
the fellowship and the communion of the Holy Spirit, to rest and
abide with us each, now and for evermore. Amen.